Comm-Core is headquartered in Lima, Ohio and provides reliable, high-quality, and competitively-priced communications services, such as hosted IP PBX, SIP trunking, and fax over IP to businesses. Recently, Comm-Core expanded their product portfolio with a suite of security and surveillance offerings. With a customer base of small businesses in the education, medical, healthcare, and manufacturing industries, Comm-Core has excelled in providing tailored services to each of these verticals and has a strong reseller business as well.

Comm-Core was using a technology platform to manage their billing needs, but it wasn’t getting the job done. “It did about 80% of what we wanted and for the first couple of months it was great, but then we ran into multiple issues,” said Tom Allen, the CTO at Comm-Core.

BILLING PAIN POINTS

A year after signing with a Santa Clara-based billing system, Comm-Core determined they did NOT make the right choice. There were several issues with their previous invoicing system. Like many communications service providers, they experienced significant problems working with a telecom billing software whose training and support teams are located overseas. Beyond the language- barrier challenges they experienced, Allen said, “The time zone difference was dramatic and there were also general accounting principles that were different than the US.”

In addition to the time difference, Comm-Core’s team found the technology rigid – for instance, they were unable to edit invoices before bills went out – which resulted in frequent billing errors. “It was not a friendly system,” said Sue Moorman, Operations Specialist. Allen elaborated on their frustrations:

“[Our previous billing platform] accidentally double-billed all of our customers and that was dramatic. Sometimes columns didn’t add up right… These errors were causing customers to lose trust and confidence in Comm-Core’s services. I don’t really know if you can put a value on all of that,” said Allen.

Lastly, after a year into their migration, the billing system failed to move Comm-Core’s resellers into the platform. The reseller channel makes up a significant portion of the company’s annual revenue and Comm-Core knew they had to make a switch. “It just failed,” said Allen about their unsuccessful implementation.

EVALUATING NEW BILLING PLATFORMS

After realizing their internal team and relationships with customers were suffering, Comm-Core started evaluating their options. It was time to find an intelligent telecom billing software that could better accommodate Comm-Core’s needs, provide excellent customer support, and allow greater flexibility. The system needed to empower them to make changes to invoices, catch errors, and improve billing accuracy. Most importantly, they needed a system that could onboard and manage their reseller business.

“Generally, creating an invoice in the phone world is complex and you guys make it easy.” – Tom Allen, CTO

Allen received a few references before making the switch to Rev.io’s monetization engine. Allen said, “The transition from their prior billing software to Rev.io was smooth. It worked well. Generally, creating an invoice in the phone world is complex and you guys make it easy. When we want to change something about that invoice, we are fully empowered to do that and can make corrections with ease.”

Another benefit of Rev.io’s intelligent billing system is their robust API. “The integration with your API has been a huge win,” said Allen. Comm-Core receives orders in various ways and they have built a front-end portal that connects to Rev.io’s telecom billing software. Comm-Core has been able to eliminate manual double-entry and save time by integrating Rev.io’s telecom billing system with their proprietary system.

Beyond the API integration, Comm-Core has leveraged Rev.io to create workflow templates for their new order process and automate the task handoffs. This feature has helped the company track orders and stay organized. “We definitely needed this. We were disorganized with our workflow. [Rev.io’s] processes feature gave us a vehicle to organize new order steps,” said Allen. As one of the final onboarding steps, Rev.io hosts clients in their office for live training. Moorman said, “Going to [Rev.io’s] training in Atlanta was very valuable. We got to meet everyone. It was great to put a face to a name and really have that sit down time. It was very beneficial!”

Lastly, Comm-Core has had great success with Rev.io’s self-service portal for customers, known as BillCenter. Comm-Core customers had asked for an online portal to submit payments, and it’s been a huge win for their team. “Our customers are happier using BillCenter,” said Moorman. Comm-Core has been able to collect revenue faster by switching to Rev.io, shortening their collection time by 4 days!

RESULTS

Since implementing Rev.io’s telecom billing software, Comm-Core’s customer base has grown by 127% and their revenue has increased by 30%! Rev.io has allowed Comm-Core to focus on what they need to change in order to bring in more revenue. Allen said, “We’ve been able to hire people and organize our business so we know what to grow.” When a customer calls in with a question, Comm-Core is able to review the customer account and address any concerns within 24 hours. “Our customers are seeing that our responses are coming in with more confidence,” said Moorman.

Comm-Core has been extremely impressed with Rev.io’s consultative approach to support. A month or two into using the platform, the Rev.io team reached out to Comm-Core to proactively address any problems. Allen said, “I couldn’t believe there is a company out there who was done with the sale and wanted to reach out to us and help improve my business and they aren’t charging us for it. This is a huge win!” said Allen. “Because of your software, our growth in 2018, and moving forward, is going to be strategic growth!”

For more information, or to see how Rev.io can help you with our telecom billing software, contact Rev.io today! We would love to chat. Or, you can download the full case study here.